


Listen to Me

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Read My Lips [11]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-19
Updated: 2016-03-19
Packaged: 2018-05-27 17:27:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6293305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the comment_fic prompt: <i>Stargate Atlantis, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay, kisses are comfort.</i> Tag to The Long Goodbye.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Listen to Me

Rodney was in the middle of a fierce argument with Zelenka about what to do with the stupid imprint pods (destroy them, obviously!) when John appeared in the doorway of the lab. His expression was pale and drawn, and his hands were curled tightly into fists.  
  
Zelenka looked between John and Rodney and said, "I'll go now," signing a clumsy _see you later_ before hurrying out of the lab.  
  
Rodney straightened up, turned to fully face John before he spoke and signed (John could lip read best when people looked at him straight on). "Hey, how are you doing?" He'd been waiting for Beckett to send word that John and Elizabeth could be released from the infirmary.  
  
John held out one fist, uncurled it, and there, on his palm, was a single shiny silver token.  
  
Rodney was across the lab in an instant. He tugged John to him and held him, and John was shaking all over, and Rodney was making useless soothing noises as he rubbed John's arms, smoothed a hand up and down his back.  
  
John pulled back, held up the coin again, and Rodney nodded, accepted it, pocketed it.  
  
John closed his eyes, and Rodney leaned in, kissed him. John tugged him close, hands fisted in his jacket, and kissed him like there was no tomorrow, like he was drowning and Rodney was his only source of oxygen, and before Rodney knew what was what, John was crying, and Rodney had to swipe a hand over the lab door mechanism and lock it.  
  
John sank to his knees, and Rodney knelt with him.  
  
They'd agreed to let John take on Thelan's imprint because John was harmless, right? Another scientist. Sure, Lorne had trained him some, he'd held his own during the Genii incursion last year, but with John's disability, Lorne would have to translate, so any conversation Phoebus had with Thelan would be monitored and controlled by Atlantis personnel out of necessity.  
  
No one had known how deep John's connection with Atlantis was, that even if he couldn't hear Atlantis could patch other people's communication through to him in an emergency (and suddenly his superhero antics during the Genii incursion made so much more sense). No one - with the exception of Rodney and possibly Lorne - had known that John could actually talk.  
  
But Thelan had made him talk, used his voice to taunt Phoebus across the comms.  
  
And now everyone knew, and John, when he'd finally come out of it, had refused to look at anyone, talk to them, even mouth words when he signed.  
  
Rodney held John, feeling useless and furious and aching for John, and then John's sobs subsided. He pulled back, cupped Rodney's face in his hands, and said, aloud,  
  
"Listen to me."  
  
He never used that turn of phrase. _Pay attention_ or _Look at me_ or _See here_ but never that.  
  
"Listen to me," he said again, voice trembling, "because I can only say this once. I lost my hearing when I was sixteen..."


End file.
